The workshop will focus on all drawing mediums and paper. The relationship between touch and surface will be explored. Baring down hard on a surface will create a dark area or line, touching lightly will create the opposite effect. The first day will explore materials, drawing still life, in reference to light, cast shadows, texture, action, and movement. The second day will explore the human figure, and thinking about the same elements of creating the illusion of space in two dimensions. Still life must move. The model must stand still. What is the common denominator? The workshop will concentrate on your touch, your perception, what is real, and what is your point of view, what has been observed and what has not.

I listen, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand.
Chinese Proverb

MJ Levy Dickson is an MFA-trained artist whose work has been exhibited widely in Massachusetts, and as far afield as Bali, the Caribbean, Iceland, and Morocco.

With a deep body of work in oils, watercolor, pen and ink, and glass, Dickson adapts form, color, line, texture, weight, and mood to unique expression. Playing the boundaries between Abstract, Realist, and Expressionist, Dickson finds unity in the natural world—especially the intersections of water with land and life.

Dickson has taught at MIT, the Boston Architectural Center, Lesley University, and the Nantucket Island School of Design and the Arts. Working with the sight-impaired, autistic, elderly, and others with special needs has honed Dickson’s instinct for art as communication. Currently, she teaches Foundation Drawing and Foundation Design at the Michael Graves School of Architecture and Design at Wenzhou-Kean University in China. She also recently partnered with the Historic House Trust of New York to do workshops for people with disabilities inspired by her installation Like Sea Glass: A Hand Full of Light at historic sites